Best Eats According to Natalie

When I was walking home from the MRT with a bubble tea cup in hand, I started thinking about all the wonderful food in Singapore- and how I'll have to say goodbye to it all in about two months! That made me very sad, but this list will not. Here's my list of favourite places to eat (and what I get)!

Food:

Roti Prata: My school does decent roti prata, but there's a Muslim food stall in Newton that makes prata that's sort of like cake. Super thick, chewy, and the curry is awesome!
Chicken Rice: Boon Tong Key is awesome. I find that mall hawkers are good, but the stuff that's $3 or less and comes wrapped in paper beats it every time.
Laksa: The stall in ION is pretty good. I only eat this once in a while.
Chili Crab: Jumbo's is good. So is No Signboard Seafood. Also, Long Beach.
TWG: It has surprisingly good food, though pricy. The smoked salmon and lamb is notable.
Ban Mee: It's soup. It's heavenly. Also, it's super filling.
Chicken Congee: I get this at chicken rice places sometimes. I have no idea why people think salty rice porridge with chicken and oil floating on top is weird. It's wonderful.
"Veggie"-- I'm pretty certain this stuff is bok choy. Who cares when it has oyster sauce on it?
Chicken wings: BBQ'd and greasy, best eaten outside.
Kuay Teow: Thick noodles, lots of bean sprouts and mysterious green veggie, and chicken. Mr. Ho's at school is such a guilty pleasure.
Char siew noodles: Chinese prepared pork, these funky elastic-y noodles, and mystery sauce of tasty.



Snacks:
Old Chang Kee-- Curry-O (curry puff with chicken, egg and potato)
BreadTalk: The cheesy sausage bun is so bad for you, but so good. Also Black Pearl when they have it.
To be honest, I don't normally eat savoury snacks.


Sweets:
Macaroons: TWG has pretty good tea themed ones, but you can get tasty ones throughout the island if you don't mind paying like $2.50 each.
Kue things: Not sure what the real name for these are, but they are funny jelly things that are normally brightly coloured. Often found at fruit stands.
Mochi Sweets: Strawberry, peach, and green tea mochi with cream inside!
Pulot Hitam: Black rice soup with condensed milk and sometimes ice cream. Maybe an acquired taste. My aunt said it looked like drowned ants, but its really good.

Frozen Treats:
Bread Ice Cream: Find along Orchard Road for $1. Slice of ice cream in a piece of rainbow bread
Ice Kachang: Local thing with lots of colour and various Asian goodies. The aunties at Great World City sometimes give me extra condensed milk on mine
Frozen Yogurt: Great World City has like 3 frozen yogurt places. I like the self-serve one or Yoguru the best.
Gelatissimo: YUM. Expensive as heck, but wow.


Drinks:
Gong Cha-- Regular bubble tea, Lemon Calpis
ShareTea-- Strawberry Ice Tea. Unnatural colour, but yummy!
Each-a-Cup: Milk tea ice-blended, basically any ice blended (kinda like a slushy)
Toast Box: Teh and Kopi (tea and coffee with condensed milk)
Sjora: Passion fruit flavoured drink. I get it when I go to Yoshinoya sometimes.
TWG: Fancy teas in a pretty pot. I like "dancing tea" and "princess tea"
Lime Juice: Find anywhere. Different than American lime juice. Its cousin calamansi juice is also wonderful.

Singaporeans?

Isn't this an interesting point of view? It's worth watching the whole thing, or at least getting through her major points. The fact that she's going out and speaking her mind on this is pretty amazing. She says it better than what I can say myself, from a Singaporean point of view. Being an expat, I've had this impression of Singaporeans for a while. Also, she's wicked talented, so you should check out her videos even though she doesn't have many.

That being said, I think Singapore is still a nicer place than New England at times. If this girl thinks Singaporeans are rude, she's obviously seen the eyes-forward-no-stopping-almost-sprint that is the New England gait. New Englanders are often seen as the rudest/meanest in the USA, but they are ultimately tough cookies.

The creativity thing is something to note, though. I'm in Chingay parade as a travelling dancer with my school, and I have to note that the Singaporean costumes are amazing. However, many are extremely traditionally based with only minor alternations. Singaporeans may be able to put on a great show, but it's not a creative show. The music (excerpt of lyrics: "we are so happy to be here today"), the reassurance that together as a country we are great... I'm all for national pride (and heaven's knows cultural cleavage rich Singapore needs it), but it's laid on thick and gets swallowed like cod-liver oil.
Also, the American group (us) is the only travelling group dance that I'm aware of that changes formation. Isn't that strange?

Make of this video what you will. I thought it was worth talking about.

Blog Related: Being a Blogger and Which Blogs I Read

This post is a response to a bunch of my classmate's questions about blogging. See, when I tell many of them I have a blog, the first two things they say are 1) how have you managed to keep it running so long and 2) how do you feel about having your personal life all over the internet?

Well, let me address these issues individually. I've managed to keep the blog running so long (which isn't really that long at all) because I love writing. I'm not the best writer by any means, and I don't have a particular product that I sell with this blog. I just talk about my opinions and observations, and occasionally give halfway decent advice. Contrary to the popular belief of my classmates, I don't make money off this in any way, shape or form. Now when I'm in college I'm considering making a new blog to follow that experience, and I might put a banner ad on it to generate some pocket money. But for right now, money isn't a motivating factor. I'm currently writing because I like it, and people seem to like reading.

The second part assumes I have a strong internet presence, which I do not. I am not followed by loads of people or anything, and though lots of people have read this blog, they have read it over nearly three years. So, while yes my personal life is out on the internet, it's not really in anyone's face. You do have to search to find this blog, it doesn't just pop up on its own.


So there are some answers to some questions. I doubt the people who asked me will ever actually read this, but hey, it's worth a shot.

Also, I feel like sharing some of the blogs that I read, because they are really cool. Also, I'm sure they won't mind the advertising. I read more than this, but these are my current favourites. It's always nice to have extra food for thought! Yes, they are kind of girly. But I have absolutely no shame about it :D

www.theproperlady.com

I like learning about being feminine ^.^ I think it's good to remember that men and women are complimentary to each other, not against each other.

www.dessertfortwo.com

Quite possibly my favourite food blog. I love that the recipes are for two people- the sweets easily stretch to three!

www.yummyhealthyeasy.com

I'm pretty certain everything on this blog is delicious.

Also, this website's peanut butter cookie in a mug rocks:
 http://www.number-2-pencil.com/2012/03/10/peanut-butter-cookie-in-cup/

Sri Lanka

Hello all,

I just got back from a week away in Sri Lanka! I meant to post yesterday but was just too darn tired to do so. Sri Lanka is the tear-drop island off of India in the Indian Ocean, in case you don't know. It's independent, though it has some political alliance of sorts to India.

A major highlight of the trip was going to tea country. Sri Lanka is famous for Ceylon tea, and tea plantations make up 10% of the landmass. We stayed in this amazing hotel called Heritage Tea Factory, that had actually been a tea factory in the past. To differentiate between the original building and the modern supports, different colours were used. Red was modern, and green was original. They actually ran the machinery in the evening for atmospheric purposes, which was fascinating. That night we had dinner in a train car, which was amazing. However, it was six courses of delicious food- by the end we all thought we were going to explore.

Another interesting activity was going on safari. Technically, safaris. On safari we saw various animals such as water buffaloes, elephants, peafowl (so many of them), birds and bugs. The evening safari was easier to deal with than the early-morning one the next day. I kept falling asleep during the morning one- it was far too hot to bother staying awake! Oh well.

I can't say if it is the best part of the trip, but one of the most enjoyable things I did was go swimming in the Indian Ocean. We stayed at a nice beach resort so naturally I splashed around in the waves for a while. The waves were really strong and I worried that my bikini was going to wash away. All and all, the beach was pretty clean.

Sri Lankan food is easily the most boring I've ever had, at least after a week of it. The rice isn't as good as East Asian rice (though remember I'm extremely bias). Then most of the food is some form of curry. Curry chicken. Curry beef. Curry veggies. Curry something else. SO MUCH CURRY!
At least the poppers were good. Poppers are these sort of pancake things made in a special pan that are really thing, except for the middle part of the "bowl" which is thick and pancake-like. Those went with sambal, spicy veggie based stuff.

Sri Lanka was a really beautiful country. Even though we were in the van a lot (with our awesome driver Maharoof who did not drive us off a cliff), it was a great trip.

My Thoughts on New Zealand

So, my New Zealand vacation is quickly coming to a close. We're flying out of Auckland on Sunday and then it's back to the heat and humidity of Singapore. Here's a list of my thoughts, opinions and observations of New Zealand.

1. The roads are curvy. At least the seaside roads. Either be ready to drive carefully and slowly, sleep the whole way through, or take some anti-motion sickness medicines.

2. It really is the adventure capitol. I swear, any crazy extreme activity you could ever think of is available here. Bungy, bungy swing, giant hamster ball things, skydiving, diving, snorkeling...

3. New Zealand is very eco-conscious. It's really nice to find a place that is actively aware of how much they are using every day. It's also pretty easy to find recycling bins and stuff.

4. New Zealand is Middle-earth. There's areas that look just like the Shire. Then there's the Misty Mountains. Oh, and then there's the woods that look like Lothlórien. And Isengard.

5. People here seem to have a nice work-life balance. It's not like America where all people do is work. People have hobbies and passions that they actively pursue outside of work.

6. People in New Zealand are fit, or at the very least they are active. There are middle-aged mountain bikers!

7. New Zealand is chilly. Bring a jacket if you've come from steamy Singapore, because you'll freeze the whole trip.

8. New Zealand has a lot of sheep. And cattle.

9. New Zealand is amazing! I think everyone should come visit here ^.^